Colette's Best Recipes

First edition, first printing copy of a charming cookbook written by an admirer of her family's cook, Colette, "a French cook who entered domestic service at 8 years of age and had cooked for 51 years at the time she set down her recipes with Marie Jacques who describes the style as "French 'cuisine de famille'; and that-like most other very good things and very good folks-is simplicity itself."

The Story-teller, who is the first person narrator of this cookbook, is eager to impart Colette's principles of cooking-and those principles are very firm.

"Never grease cake tins with either margarine or salt butter, for both make the cakes stick and burn."

"Yeast cakes , meringues, and the Gateau Fecule must not have baking powder put into them on any account."

The cookbook has chapters on soups, eggs, ragouts and stews, birds and beasts, left-overs, chafing dish recipes, fish, frying, vegetables, sauces, candied fruits and sweets, cakes and biscuits, fruit, creams and sweet dishes, and conserves.